Posted on 10/04/2006 4:15:31 PM PDT by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — The final journey of Cpl. Casey Lee Mellen begins today with a noon funeral service at the Main Post Chapel on Fort Huachuca, followed by his burial at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery at 2 p.m.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has ordered all flags in the state to be lowered to half staff today to honor Mellen. On Tuesday, the flags were ordered to half staff by the governor to honor Army Lt. Col. Douglas Mann, of Sierra Vista, who was killed in an accident in San Antonio, Texas, as he was preparing for deployment to Iraq. Mann’s funeral service was held at the Main Post Chapel on Tuesday, with internment at the Old Post Cemetery.
On Tuesday, soldiers at Fort Lewis, Wash. — where Mellen, the 21-year-old soldier from Huachuca City was stationed — held a memorial ceremony for one of their own. He was remembered during that ceremony as a soldier who had many friends.
One of the soldiers wrote that on Sept. 25 Mellen’s death by small arms fire in Mosul, Iraq, caused sorrow among the unit’s soldiers. Spc. Curtis Easterling said Case, which was Mellen’s his nickname, was a person who could be trusted and who provided support to him and his family.
“We would talk about how nervous we were about going to Iraq,” Easterling wrote in an eulogy. The two decided if they stuck together they would be all right, he said.
But it was not to be.
“Mellen meant a lot to me, more than people know,” Easterling wrote in the eulogy. “I am going to get a tattoo of his name on me and I am going to name my next boy’s middle name Mellen, because he was that special.”
On Monday, as Mellen’s body was driven through Huachuca City after it was picked up in Tucson, local resident Patricia Carpenter said remembering him and others who have died in defense of the nation is important.
“Any service person that serves deserves our love and respect,” she said as she stood along the Highway 90, holding an American flag in her right hand.
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
Remembering a Hero as he was
Story of a Hero's final good-bye.
May God bless him.
May God bless him.
Rest in peace, Cpl. Mellen, your work here is done. May God speed you home and comfort your loved ones.
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